Friday, 30 March 2012

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Please pass on on anybody that plays, or wants to play Jazz that may be interested

Who goes on a Jazz Workshop?
Simply, anyone who plays any instrument, and who would like to learn or develop their skills and interests in Jazz.
Even if you've just started to play your chosen instrument, the beauty of jazz is you are able to play a jazz tune, or improvise a jazz tune to your level of ability.
The real fun is meeting everyone else of the workshop, and seeing how they play their way.
The tutors on the workshop understand how jazz works, and are able to encourage players to get the best fun out of playing jazz their instruments.
What instruments will you see on a jazz workshop?
Almost any instrument can play jazz, the most popular being
Piano, Saxophone, Clarinet, Guitar, Flute,Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Double Bass, Drums, Vibes, Hammond Organ, and of course the human voice.
The beauty of a multi day workshop, see Butlers Jazz in Varengeville is that you get time to immerse yourself in jazz and really benefit from being away from other distractions of day to day life!
Don't be afraid of playing in front of others, everyone on the workshop will be supportive and friendly, because they know exactly how you feel, they have been there themselves.
Email me Peter Willson if you would like to know more about Jazz WorkshopsButlers Jazz Workshop

You may be wondering what a jazz workshop is all about and what to expect from one.

I started going to jazz workshops in the 1980s and the first one I went to was at Wavendon in the UK (Some 40 miles or so North of London) and had a great week meeting players of all instruments, in fact I found that this was the start of my jazz career!

To all those out there who play musical instruments, any musical instrument, and are interested in jazz, why not have a look at Butlers Jazz Workshop this year in Normandy (France) and have a short break as well!

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner, or you have been playing some time, you will be welcome, and you will find that you will make some incredible friends whilst having a really great time playing!

Unlike classical music, jazz players generally have to have a knowledge of chords so that they can play the chord when playing a piece.

Although this mainly is thought of as a rythmn section thing, ie only for the piano and/or guitar, all players of jazz need to have some understanding of chord structure or voicing of the chord.

If you are a line player, (usually a blower!) you might think that this is a subject that you can ignore - but line players can play chords (with other players) under a soloist adding to the rythmn section chords.

Now, look at a lead sheet, that is music for jazz that only has a melody line and chords (see any of the Real Books or so called 'busker' books) and you will see the player is given under the melody line the associated chord that is played at that point of the melody.

One will see things like Dm7 (D minor seventh) or Cmaj7 (C major seventh). Future post will explain all the more commonly seen chords, as this is a subject can be quite challenging - but fascinating!

From the major scale if you play the 1st 3rd 5th and 7th notes together on a keyboard or guitar, you will get a major seventh chord, in the key of C that will be C E G and B - you will be playing C major 7th chord (Cmaj7)

From the C major scale again, play the 2nd 4th 6th and octave (8th) note and you will be playing
D F A and C, the chord of D minor seventh (Dm7) These chords can be repeated in any of the 12 major scales (major keys) but will of course have different names, the bottom note of the basic chord giving it it's name. For example F A C E, the 1st 3rd 5th and 7th note of the F major scale, will be called F major 7th (Fmaj7)

Now play the 5th 7th 9th and 11th of the scale in C it will be G B D and F (the 9th and 11th are above the octave) and you will be playing G dominant 7th, or for short, G7.

Now those chords, if played like that, are quite heavy sounding, so the pianist and/or guitarist generally play chords in a more 'spread out' fashion, that is they 'voice' the chord.

Voicing is an art form in itself, and diffeerent pianists and guitar players will play chords differently, and that give each player their own identity.

Much can be said of voicing chords, but as a start, dont play the whole chord, play the 3rd and seventh of the chord (not the scale) and you will have the essence of that chord - ie in G7 (G B D and F) play the B and the F only. This is the just the beginning of the process of voicing that chord (G7).

It's what other notes you add to that will make the chord sound interesting, great or even fantastic!!

Monday, 26 March 2012

It doesn't seem an accident to me that the history of jazz almost coincides with the history of recorded music, originally the gramophone and phonograph.

The early jazz pioneers were recorded and then would be players, rather than using sheet music (as one might for classical music) listened to those recordings and tried to play a jazz piece from the recording on their instrument.

Musicians wanting to learn jazz today might well follow the same principle, especially when learning how to improvise.

Don't listen to a piece once, and think that is sufficient for you to play it, you may well have to listen very carefully to the same piece many times to get a real feel for it!

After listening carefully here are some tips that might be useful.

Take a simple piect to start of with and then find out key that the performer is playing in, (go the end of the piece and see what chord it finishes on may help) . You would need to know if its a major or minor key.

Here it would be good if you have a knowledge of all the 12 major keys as scales (see previous posts) and by using the mode starting on the 6th note of the scale, would gie you the relative minor key (as a natural minor scale).

A useful thing to know, the relative minor (the minor key with the same number of sharps or flats as the major) is always the same as the mode starting on the 6th note of the major scale. Determine whether the piece is in a major or minor key. (Some jazz, especially more 'modern' might not be in a key at all), so maybe stick in the first instance to jazz standards.

Find, by playing along with the recording, the melody or improvisation that you hear, and try to memorise it. If you read and write music you can write it down, but its much better anyway to try and get it into your head!

You might well notice that the notes don't always follow the major or minor scale that the piece is in, that may be because the tune might 'visit' other keys during the piece, to give it interest.
(A process called modulation) This is all part of the understanding of thispiece of music.

Hopefully, with due diligence, this will give you a basic idea of the piece, but to get to the heart, you will need to undersatnd the chords that support the melody, or improvisation, and this can be quite a challenge, and will be the subject of later posts.

All this work may be made easier by going on a jazz workshop and interacting with other players as they learn.

Friday, 23 March 2012

There are 12 major scales in (Western) music each one starting on a separate note
C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B (see note below)

Each note above has a major scale starting on that note.
Chords can be built up on each note of the scale by playing evry other note in the scale (Musically called Thirds) like this
In C
Chord 1 C E GChord 2 D F AChord 3 E G BChord 4 F A C etc
Carry on in C to get all seven chords
The same thing can be done in any of the other 12 major scales ie
In F
Chord 1 F A CChord 2 G Bb DChord 3 A C E etc.
In jazz, we extend this to four note chords (and beyond!)
So in C
Chord 1 C E G BChord 2 D F A CChord 3 E G B D etc
In every major scale therefore you can have 7 four note chords
They all have names
Chord 1 Major 7thChord 2 minor 7thChord 3 minor 7thChord 4 Major 7thChord 5 Dominant 7th (or just 7th for short)Chord 6 minor 7thChord 7 minor seventh flat 5 (or half dimished for short)
Don't worry too much about the names, until you want to read a chart (the jazz man's term for sheet music or chord sheet) then it becomes very useful.
In C therefore chord 1 is C Major 7thchord 5 is G dominant 7th (or G7th for short)
By using just the 12 major scales, a musician can build up a whole library of chords for use in playing and improvising.
There are of course many more chords (and scales) available to the jazz musician, but more about that another time!

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Before going on a jazz workshop, make sure you know all 12 major scales on your instrument
A major scale can be defined by its sound, try singing Doh Ray Me Fah So La Te Doh and you have a major scale.

For example C D E F G A B C. Now there are eleven others to find starting on each one of the eleven notes in an octave - eleven notes in an octave you say? I thought there were eight (OCTave) no there are 12 altogether, on a keyboard, look at all the notes including the black notes.

Using your 12 major scales, (there are seven different notes in each major scale) and by starting on a different note (say the 2nd in the scale) you are now playing a mode, (very useful in jazz!)

You now should know 12 major scales, plus seven different starting points, making 72 scales/modes in all!

If you play the mode starting on the 6th not of the major scale, you are now playing a natural minor scale. Sharpen the seventh note and you have a harmonic minor scale.

To build a chord from a major scale play the 1st 3rd and 5th note of that scale at the same time and you have a major triad chord - you can call it chord 1 of that major scale

Other chords can be built from a major scale, ie 2nd 4th and 5th note will give you a minor triad - this one is chord 2
Sit down and play these on your instrument, if you've never done it before it will take time, but when you are improvising in jazz, these scales and modes are invaluable!